Science Fiction and the Future

Dehydrated cherry tomatoes. Finally getting some things from the Garden!






by murph

SCIENCE FICTION AND THE FUTURE

I know many of our readers follow The Archdruid postings. I do faithfully. A few of them I considered important enough to archive into storage. John Michael Greer (the archdruid) I have great respect for. Knowledgeable, well read, studious, pays attention to details and a good writer and I seldom have serious dispute with his postings.

However, I have to take exception to his Sept. 7 post titled “Invasion of the Space Bats” that is concerned mostly with science fiction writing.

I will fully admit that I have been a big fan of science fiction writing since the late 60’s. I had a rather huge collection of paperback novels a bunch of years ago, finally got tired of moving them and sold almost all of them, comprised of nearly 1500 books. I still have around almost the complete works of Heinlein and several others of my favorite authors.

In my opinion, Greer has a rather myopic view of SF writing. He stated; “it was basically a collection of wish-fulfillment fantasies for teenage boys. (And that, Mr. de Camp, is what the woman in the brass brassiere is doing on the cover of your book.) “. Bull shit in my opinion. In fact, Greer’s belittlement of SF smacks of Ayn Rand and her condemnation of everything but classical music. I sure would hate to see Greer go in the direction of Randisms, he’d lose me in a heartbeat.

My fascination with SF up until about 1980 was the alternate views concerning how humans could organize themselves into societies and how they would work. “The wish-fulfillment fantasies” dealing with technology was entirely of secondary concern for me. I was interested in the author’s conception of how societies could be organized differently, how motivations of individuals and groups could influence actions and what the consequences might be, and how future societal values might evolve. I have a rather long list of SF books that highlight that line of thinking. Greer’s myopic view that these novels were exclusively about technology and teenage fantasies is very poor reductionism and IMO misses the author’s points by wide margins.

It is true that many SF novels focused on the author’s concept of future technology and engaged in how that technology was used. These novels usually had poor character development, pretty thin plot lines and rather predictable outcomes. I read them for the purely entertainment value. But to make Greer’s mistake of lumping them all into “wish-fulfillment fantasies” is only showing a lack of extensive investigation on his part.

I mostly stopped indulging in SF reading around 1980 or so because I observed a couple of changes going on. I got tired or reading acclaimed novels that seemed to only be concerned with the number of words being printed and paid for and had nothing significant to say. I also lost interest in the change from speculation on social organization to what I call science fantasy. These works migrated into magic and the occult and completely unbelievable futures. Purely entertainment without significant content and probably would fit into Greer’s “wish fulfillment fantasies”.

I recently had an acquaintance lay on me 4 sacks of her SF books to read. I recently went through two of the sacks and am reading only one of the novels. The rest I won’t bother with because they are those science fantasy types that IMO have nothing significant to say about anything. The person that let me borrow these book is a retired teacher and a self proclaimed SF nut and offers literary critique on a broad scale. I’m not looking forward to returning the books unread since she recommended them so highly. But I refuse to waste my time on them. The one novel I am reading is concerned with nano-technology misuse and how it affected the people involved. The author seems to have made the attempt to really understand the technology as it is today and project it into the future applications, mostly military. So far, that novel hasn’t disappointed me. I shall see how it ends up.

In talking about SF we also need to include the movie part of it. Freeacre and I have recently seen a bunch of the most wretched god awful written and produced Sf movies ever. The plots were pretty good, but everything else presenting it was so poorly done as quite literally, were not worth watching. For some reason that I don’t fully understand, the SF movies for the most part do not have much significant to say, pure entertainment alone. There are exceptions IMO. The Matrix series I think have some significant statements as does the Terminator series. “The Road” which is a pretty dark movie does project some possible scenarios into the future, as does the movie “Children of Men”. I think that “The Postman” (which is a futuristic movie and SF) also has some significant statements about humans and how they can organize and live after a huge catastrophe.

Which leads me to another subject associated with SF that I have touched on before. There is much written today and in the past concerning the past, present and future. The advice from many authors, religions and philosophy views is to live in the present. Upon examination of some of these “live in the present” positions, I have come to the conclusion that it is a fantasy game in the brain. There is no such thing as “the present” and humans that try and live there are kidding themselves. What is possible is to limit to some extent the amount lived in the past or projections into the future.

Let’s start with some definitions. The future is what might be, but is not manifested at this time and space. The past is what is remembered and has already taken place. The present is what is “now”. That is where the rub is. What is the time interval for “now”? The minute you identify “now”, it is in the past. The past and the future have no time limitations. I am going to assert that humans cannot live in that short a time span of brain activity. What are we going to talk about, milliseconds, Pico-seconds? “Now” in reality simply does not exist in any human conceptualization that has meaning. What we mostly refer to as “now” is a short time span in the past.

It is true that humans may indulge in what is called “impulse behavior” that does not have significant reflection on past memories, but, I would assert that operating primarily on impulse behavior has more negative consequences on a person than might be acknowledged. Even the “fight or flight” impulses are based on past memories.


One of the characteristics of the human brain is that it has selective memory and is most of the time very inaccurate for a variety of reason. Since the memory of the past events can never be absolutely verified we have to accept our interpretation and “memory” of events that influence our actions in the future. Living in the “now” implies that memory of the past and projections into the future can be discounted and that, my readers, is flat out impossible. It is not the way the human brain works. Even other animals operate by remembering the past, which is the basis for actions in the future. A well-trained dog remembers past commands and acts accordingly. So do all of us. .

The real question for me anyway, is how accurate are the memories and their relationship to reality. From experience, I know damned well that I have memories that are doctored, maybe even pure fantasy. How many times have friends said to you that your memory of some incident is not how it was, or that they saw it very different? Or how many times has a friend related and incident you were involved in sometime in the past and you don’t recognize it because you remember it different?

On a very rudimentary level, our very survival depends on memory of the past. That memory and the resulting consequences of some event is what keeps us alive and able to project consequences into the future. When our memory is very inaccurate most of the time and not in conjunction with reality, we probably will not survive. In my view, that is the purpose of history, inaccurate as it is, to keep us focused on what has gone on before and its implications for the future. If the history that we keep locked up in our minds is way off base in relation to reality, we will make some really bad decisions concerning future actions, much to our detriment.

I conclude that all the new age stuff about living in the “present” in the “now” is so much nonsense. It can’t be done and only diverts ones attention from what is important to human living and survival.

At this point I want to thank all of you that have offered opinions concerning this blog and its continuance. That the comments were so predominately encouraging and supportive took me a bit by surprise. It truly felt to me that the blog was becoming stale without much new to talk about. We are not about to disconnect from this blog in the immediate future, and maybe we just need a few people to make contributions with some fresh insights we haven’t thought of. Belgium says he has some in the works. Let’s see how this progresses.

Thanks again to all of you.

THERMOPYLAE ALL OVER AGAIN?

The build up in the fire pit during HSW visit in preparation to fire 3 of his clay heads. Sort of looks like a salad doesn't it? There were at least 10 different items in that fire for effect on the clay.

THERMOPYLAE ALL OVER AGAIN? from murph

If you aren’t familiar with the battle of Thermopylae, Wiki will give you some of the background. The legend is that 300 Spartans defended a pass to stop the passage of a huge amount of invaders intent on taking over Greece. It was referenced at the last part of the movie “The Last Samurai”. In actuality, there were back up armies to the 300 Spartans, but a turncoat got them all killed. In the end, the invading hoards were repelled.

I bring this up as a simile to current situations. There is a huge horde at the gates, threatening the PTB and wanting to abolish their rule. The Spartans (an extreme warlike group) composed of the PTB and their minions are defending the status quo. They are vastly outnumbered but have the machinery of war and suppression at their disposal. We have been talking for years now about who will win this confrontation. How many of the defenders were killed? To the very last man according to the story.

Our problem as citizens is to survive until the conclusion of the battles and then deal with the aftermath. The question in my mind, are there enough bodies to oppose the PTB? At this time, it appears not to be although that could change dramatically as our living situations deteriorate. There does seem to be considerable rebellion going on around the world. How much has been instigated by the PTB is open to question and just what the agendas are we, of course, are not privy to.

Freeacre and I have been exposed to huge amounts of contradictory information concerning Libya and the uprising there. According to a couple of sources, Libya was in actuality a very open populace democracy wherein the government used its oil revenue for the benefit of the population and Gaddafi had no power at all, only as an advisor. The country supposedly had the highest standard of living of any country in Africa. The contradiction is that Gaddafi was a tyrant dictator that had to be replaced. It has been fairly obvious to us that a lot of the photos and news items concerning the rebellion has been spun and doctored. Preparing us for another damned war? Is the US determined to control the whole of mid-eastern countries? Considering how much hate is directed toward the US in that area of the world, it is going to take some pretty hefty military presence to do that. Who in hell is going to finance that? China? Japan? Germany? Not likely. But we shall see.

One of the big contradictions I see is over the worlds oil supply. Circulating around is the concept that the US has oil reserves that far exceeds all the other reserves in the world put together. Well, if that is true, what are doing fighting over oil in the Arab worlds? Make sense to you? Somebody is lying to us on a grand scale.

On the home front.

It sure appears to us that heavy criticism of the US government is coming under some pretty draconian suppression. In many ways, I approve of that. Nothing like suppression to get the adrenalin boiling up and rebellion started. At the same time, a lot of people are going to take it in the ass. Not justice, not pretty and with no real justification at all outside of the top people’s lust for power. This has led us to be concerned with what is being said on the internet, principally, the criticisms of policy and behavior of the PTB and their minions. How much of a crackdown is coming at us? How many folks are going to be made example’s of what happens when you criticize?

While this blog has a, relatively speaking, small readership and comments, it has tended over the years to be quite critical of the goings on nationally and worldwide. Will any of us be made examples of? We have quite a few examples of popular sites being discontinued. What was the reason? Pressure from some power players? Threats? We don’t really know. Small blogs such as this one are primarily composed of people with few resources to fight that kind of pressure or defend against threats. But, we do know that often when an example is to be made, it is mostly directed at those folks with the least ability to fight back. The family organic farmers and food coops are a prime example of the big commercial agricultural business taking on those without the power to fight back. Observe whom the IRS goes after. Same thing is happening at the international level. The US certainly is not taking military action against a country that has the capability to mount an effective resistance. Although I have to admit that Afghanistan is doing pretty good with asymmetric warfare. We sure as hell are not pressing those countries with nuclear retaliation capabilities.

So, Freeacre and I are contemplating whether to continue this blog. We are as concerned for you the readers and those that comment as we are for ourselves. Is it time to stop and become a bit more anonymous? Have we said all that is to be said? Do we now need to turn our attention elsewhere?

We are interested in what others have to say on this subject. Let us know.

A Note from Freeacre –

Personally, I don’t want to end our association with the tribe. But, the blog site gets about two thousand hits a month from all over the country. Most of the people who read our site do not make comments. That’s been fine with me during the time when we were attempting to raise awareness of peak oil and other resources, provide alternatives to the corporate injunctions, learning to produce our own food, organizing the community, etc. But, now it seems to me as well, that we have written about preparing until we are practically blue in the face. We thought it would have all crashed and burned years earlier. Who knew they would come up with the wild assortment of mitigating factors that they have – trillions in “bail outs,” never-ending wars, creating a suffocating police state, and God knows what all? It looks as if they are going to string this crap out forever.

I’m about done with preparing. Now, I want to accomplish some things on my “bucket list” while it’s still possible. We may not even plant a garden next year. We may take a year off and travel a bit. I’d like to be more artistic. It seems that many of you have moved on as well.

The earth changes and possible asteroid, comet, or dwarf star approaches mostly either will or will not take place within the next couple of months. Frankly, I’d like to keep holding each others hand awhile longer at least. Somewhere down the line, I think we should close down the blog and the “regulars” continue our friendships through e-mail, phone calls, or visits.

The grid could go down at any time – whether through natural or man-made reasons. I guess that’s the last thing that we need to prepare for.

aho

Space Doom?

by Freeacre



Okay, okay. Forget the fact that most of the more well known predictions in my lifetime have all turned out to be duds. Let me think: Haley’s Comet was supposed to be the event of a lifetime. They told us when we were kids that we’d grow up and see it. Fifty years later, it was just kinda cool. All these Harmonic Conversions bringing change and higher consciousness… haven’t noticed. The Age of Aquarius… and now we live in perpetual warfare. Mars was supposed to be HUGE, closest it’s ever been and whatnot. Obama was going to change all the bad stuff… And now I am reading that they plan to arm police with robot helicopters that can taser you from the air. And the new head of the FDA used to be Monsanto’s lawyer. I fear that someday I am going to find my entire personal worldview on Snopes.

But, good things do pop up like mushrooms in times that just seem like dirt. In fact, it happens a lot. It’s just that those things are most often unanticipated. They are most welcome, none-the-less. There is no disappointment when something that you don’t expect doesn’t happen. There’s no money or time lost. There’s no reality that jars your sensibilities. No ego investment. No anything.

So, there is a lot more energy involved in a prediction - to make a prediction as well as to act on one. We need more than inspiration to make a prediction. We need some facts to back it up. Some numbers. Second opinions… a visual. More than a visual. Verification. And, even then, maybe only your kids will get it. Especially if it’s bad news.

It’s even worse when there are several reputable and not so reputable sources that make contradicting calculations and conclusions. It seems almost impossible to sort out.

With all those qualifiers in mind, let me tell you what the hell I am talking about: Mr.2tuff and his prediction that our heavenly sphere may suffer serious disruptions at any time and especially on Oct. 28th of this year. He has made many fascinating videos showing info from NASA and other official astronomical sources. He goes out into his backyard and you can see what his telescope sees. And you can verify it on googlesky or googlespace or whatever it is. And he has this amazing, down home, favorite uncle voice that betrays a really keen intellect. You have to judge for yourself. http://www.youtube.com/user/Mr2tuff. Or look into it further. Not everybody is coming to the same conclusions. NASA, for instance. And most of the folks and scientists who study the comet Elenin and the possible dwarf star, Nibiru; Patrick Geryl’s work on the Sun, etc.

As I understand it (and feel free to enlighten me), mr.2tuff says that we are in a binary star system. This system comes close to our solar system periodically, about every 3,600 years. It’s not just a planet that comes relatively near us, it’s another solar system. What the ancients thought was Nibiru was actually Jupiter and it’s moons when it was exceptionally close. It would be good to view the two DVD’s available on http://www.thunderbolts.info/home.htm regarding the cataclysms and their aftermaths.


As solar systems approach each other, they spin faster and contract like an ice skater who pulls in and spins faster. In times like these, Jupiter is closer and looks bigger. Go look at it. It’s the bright planet near the constellation Orion. It’s ‘way big. As it approaches, it effects the Sun as well as all the planets, including earth. It has a big belt of hunks and pieces around it, just like our solar system does. No, naturally, lots of these in the form of asteroids or comets or meteors can be hurled at us in increasing numbers, ergo, Elenin (and the asteroids).. So, “Heads up,” as he says.

This is not necessarily an extinction level event. After all, it has happened before and people did survive. They may have wandered forty years in the dessert or suffered a great flood, but they survived. The species, at least. But he further contends that our Overlords have known about this for years and years, and have been preparing for it. The privileged few plan to carry on without the riff-raff. The riff-raff would be us.

So, that ‘s why they don’t care if the world economy tanks or not. They didn’t care if they poisoned the oceans and the air and sucked the resources from the world. They don’t care that people are sick, disabled, and dying. They don’t care that our government is a zoo and we are living in a feed lot. They prefer it that way. I am paraphrasing now – expanding on a theme, as it were.

On any given day, a case can be made that between the global central banks, the stock markets, the pharmaceutical companies, the big agricultural corporations, the complicit congress, and the nuclear power industry, there is a race going on as to who can kill or exploit the most of humanity. I am not exactly certain why they need the money, since logically money would not matter anymore in the event of a real cataclysm. But, you could consult the people of Haiti, and get a different perspective.

He says that all this divisiveness and hostility being fostered between differing factions of our society (Dems and Repugs, immigrants vs. locals, Fundies and infidels, gays and straights, Muslims and everybody else, etc.) are all reinforced by the media, et al, so that “when the lights go out” we’ll be fighting amongst ourselves and the rich will slide into their shelters and wait to pick up the pieces, basically. Personally, I am not entirely convinced that TPTB are so smart. This clusterfuck may just be the result of our collective flaws.

Mr2tuff’s prediction is that despite all that we are concerned about, this second solar system is approaching now. It’s time to get out of cities and into the country. Hopefully, people who are awake have already prepared. All hell is about to break loose and there is absolutely nothing that we can do to stop it.

Well, we might not be able to stop the relationship with a binary star. But, we could react to the predicament like the Irish and the Scots did at the battle of Sterling (in Braveheart) when they joined forces and refused to fight each other. We could drop all the bullshit and watch each others backs. That would be a step in the right direction. Or, we may take the opportunity to die well, if it comes to that. All I can say is that if this is a time of transition into some sort of “higher” consciousness, we better fuckin’ well get to it. We may be almost out of time, at least in this incarnation. Or we could just declare ourselves to be up to the job and get on with it. Let’s hope the kids figure a way to keep the internet up.

We have been kicking around assorted doom scenarios for years now. And we have created a supportive cyber tribe who have helped many of us work towards surviving and maybe even thriving in the event that the Matrix breaks down. So, we are probably more prepared than most to ride out this storm and be of service to our neighbors. We might just have been born for this. It helps me to think so. Like Charles Duvall said in Second Hand Lion, “Some things you believe in because they are worth believing in.”

It is a good time to figure out for ourselves just what is worth believing in. And it is a good time to take pleasure in the great gifts of this lifetime. If this prediction turns out to be another dud, all the better. At least my attention will have been on these issues rather than “Pippa’s New Hairdu,” “Kim Kardashian Will Always Look Like a Midget next to her new husband”; or “Demonstrators for Peace Now Considered Terrorists.”

aho

The Political Circus

photo courtesy of Hot Springs Wizard

by murph


In the last few months Freeacre and I have been flummoxed over what appears as news these days. Since our TV’s won’t do anything more than play DVD’s and we can’t watch broadcast stuff, we are out of the loop on MSN. So we go to all our favorite Internet sites to find out what is happening, or at least to get an idea about current events. Our radio reception is so poor that we just don’t indulge in it.

I have also waited to put up a new post until the Tuesday vote on the new budget proposal in Washington.

We have periodically over the last couple of years commented on the seemingly escalating evidence of the deterioration of our society and government. Every day it is something new to get us upset. Cryptogon had a posting on the voter registration in Wisconsin that was very interesting. Seems that a person’s voting registration was linked to bank account activity. What the hell!? Now you have to show not only citizenship, a couple forms of identity docs, AND bank account activity? I wonder when they are going to start asking for documentation for how many times you have had sex last month and how many glasses of water you drank last week. I guess that might involve testimony before a judge (with oaths, swearing on the bible and notarization) by a person close to you to back up your claim so you can vote.

The July 17th posting from the Archdruid got on one of my favorite rants; education. I’ve talked a bit about it over time on this blog. A number of authors that I respect have spent time on the subject. I’ve had just a bit of experience pertaining to this subject; having spent 4 periods of my life engaged in some form of formal education and have done some teaching; about 3 years worth, part time mostly. It amounts up to 21 years of full time formal schooling, right around 1/3 of my life to the present. Economically, it has gained me very little and put me in debt such that I can never pay it off. I have commented before that going to school has changed a lot in the last 50 years. My last stint in the 90’s left me breathless in observing the changes, both at the university level and the elementary and high school level. Generally, formal schooling has devolved into primarily job training. It was not always so. The consequence is that we have people graduating from some school at whatever level in the expectation and dream of getting a well paying job. As the Archdruid pointed out; what job? Going to school does not create jobs. There are only a certain percentage of jobs that demand special training (schooling) and if the amount of people trained for these jobs exceeds the jobs available, more schooling will not solve an employment problem. On top of that, the jobs available are changing so fast that by the time you graduate, that particular area you studied so hard for may not even be available anymore or soon phased out. Plus, at a university level, the debt level to get that training is excessive and is going in that direction for parents at the grade school and high school level, more so at the college level.

What has happened in my opinion is a very drastic shift in the definition of what it means to be educated. We have shifted away from the idea that being educated means being able to integrate diverse information, being able to think critically, being at least functionally literate, having a broad view of trends and perhaps most important, being able to examine critically ones own perceptions and conclusions, and a good grounding in history. Instead, we have gone to a high degree of specialization, lack of knowledge of anything outside of a specific specialization, mostly memorization, little critical thinking and borderline literacy and little curiosity outside of the “job training” and almost no knowledge of history. The consequence is that we have a generation or two that has no idea of what has been done to us, what we have had to give up and why from the manipulations of the elites of this world. The changes have been relatively slow and what they currently experience is normal to them. Their lack of knowledge of history gives them nothing to compare “now” to the “past” and does not give them the ability to project into the future what is likely to be the consequences. Witness the popularity of the Tea Party and the radical groups that form, (politically and religious) reform and shift allegiances at the drop of a hat with no clear agenda and no understanding of consequences of what they do pay homage to. Blind obedience to ideology has taken the place of thinking and critical analysis for most of society. As a side note on this, in our area, the amount of people ignorant of local events is astounding, even though the local paper announces it well ahead of time. The excuse: “I don’t read the paper”. In fact, I suspect that they cannot read well, it is a chore and so they don’t. The old farts that have spent the time and effort to keep up with events in their life can explain all day what we have lost and it is for the most part wasted effort on the majority of the population that are the result of our famed American educational system. Technology uber alles is the chant in refutation. The attitude seems to be centered on the concept that “hard reality” is only a malleable variable in life. While the idea that “drill baby drill” as a panacea to our energy problems is starting to retreat it still seems to be the predominant point of view for most Americans. While the green energy advocates are still agitating for massive expenditures, some hard questions of its viability are starting to show up in the mainstream thinking.

Few people are willing to examine how our lives are going to change; our lives are going to become less efficient and more resilient, less convenient and more human energy output in living. Government services will decrease and become undependable. We are seeing that going on around us. For individuals and communities that are striving for localization and sustainability, government is becoming less relevant. And yet, government, in order to preserve their authority and perks are loading more economic burdens on the populations and increasing their harassment.

I’ve stated before that it sure appears to me that the internet as we know and use it today is not going to last. Free exchange of information, criticalness of government actions, criticalness of large corporations simply is not acceptable to a fascist, autocratic plutocracy. The internet also serves a function for like minded folks of whatever persuasion to exchange information and opinion, (and even to organize resistance) again unacceptable to the PTB and their minions, especially if it does not parrot the accepted positions within the elites.

The political circus going on for a while now over the government debt and the entitlements (that the republicorps hate) is so laughable that I can hardly stand it. No matter what your favorite political ideology is, flat out stopping or vastly reducing what they call entitlements to citizens is going to cause havoc. Notice that they also include SS into the category of entitlements. Pure unadulterated bull shit. It was a government sponsored savings program that all wage serfs contributed to with the idea that it would provide at least minimum living standards upon retirement. Give politicians and oligarchs access to funds and it will soon be gone, which is what has happened with that savings program. Also notice that the advocates of smaller government and balanced budget don’t say a word about corporate entitlements and freebies, nor do they want to talk about funding wars or the huge amount of money being made by the people that are supposed to be running the government. Hypocrites, all of them.

Some of the latest economic projections indicate a booming inflation coming our way. There is the contrary opinion for deflation out there too. Personally, I expect inflation big time. Not so sure of hyperinflation, but it is the only alternative I can see to the economic mess we are in. If, IF our government bonds are downgraded in value, inflation (or degrading the value of the dollar) is the only way to stave off default. Interest on the national debt takes all the tax money that is collected in one analysis I read. It sure appears to me that no matter what action is taken, we as a viable democratic republic are doomed. I rather doubt that starting ANOTHER war is going to keep things moving either, a tactic that has been successful so far.

Then I read and listen to the statements by the political candidates and I have the opposite reaction. Instead of being amused, I find my stomach churning. How did these idiots get into politics anyway? Lowest common denominator? For all those lovers of the smaller government put out by the republicorps propagandists and all their minions, take a look at these stats. http://home.adelphi.edu/sbloch/deficits.html Oh yeh, Ronny Ray-gun is the savior in economic policy and trickle down economics is a message from god. The Koch brothers and the Tea Party really need to get their heads out of their collective asses.

Met a younger fellow the other day that said that he is bored most of the time. Sheesh, bored? With all the shit going on today? Freeacre and I are as busy as we have ever been. Her son has arrived and that takes some time to get everything set up. Garden and greenhouse finally growing well, hope there is enough growing season left to get some harvest. The guy that in previous years has had a farmers market here hasn’t even shown up this year, yet anyway. We kind of depended on him for stuff we couldn’t grow enough of or couldn’t grow at all. I actually saw 4 honeybees yesterday out working some of the garden blooms. I wonder where they live.

Just What Are We Going to Do?

This is a snapshot that Hot Springs Wizard took of a Montana moose on his recent trip.


by murph


I know, I really do know that we haven’t written a new post for almost a month now. Not only has there been a problem with time allotment, but also once more I have been searching for a subject. The last 4 weeks have been really hectic. We were hoping that our pooches’ problem with seizures was solved and this weekend she went back to them, big time. She had 14 grand mal seizures in 12 hours. We didn’t get much sleep. The garden and greenhouse have had to be continually monitored because of the really strange weather we are experiencing and adjustments made because of nighttime temperatures going down close to or below freezing, in July no less. We have had to get ready for the community chicken coop and garden tour coming up this weekend that has been eating up a lot of time. To top it off, Freeacre’s son is moving here and preps have to be made for that. All in all, we are playing catch-up on almost every aspect of our lives right now, so new posts have to take a back seat in priorities.

In the last 4 weeks, in our daily reading of stuff posted on the internet, it appears that a lot of writers are getting down and dirty lately. They seem to be anticipating some abrupt and radical changes coming in soon. What these changes are going to look like differs somewhat depending on who is talking about them. But, the consensus seems to be that they are coming and coming soon. If the change is abrupt and relatively severe, there is going to be some interesting social upheaval showing up. What the PTB do about it is open to question also. In any case, it sure appears to me the PTB is losing its grip on events. Either that or it is all planned to come down in some manner, whatever it looks like. I don’t anticipate that it will be either pleasant or make things better.

Of great concern to a hefty percentage of our population (like 70 million or so) is the threatened cuts or even elimination of Social Security and Medicaid entitlements. Now I wonder just what 70 million folks will do if that happens? Revolution of the infirm by wheelchair and walkers? My mental picture of granny with her walker and an AK slung on her back marching on Washington would be funny if it wasn’t so serious.

Did you know that around 17% of our working people (out of about 140 million) are employed by the government at some level? That is about 24 million folks that are involved in making decisions and their minions that are involved in enforcing those decisions on the rest of us. That is about the same as Greece, and we know what that has done to their country. And this is during a time when local governments that are strapped for cash are laying off government service employees. One of the biggest surges in this direction took place during the Reagan administration; Smaller government say the Repugs; yeah right!! And most of this control is now in the hands of the international corporations. Good old Obama, change for the better. Yeah, right!

It occurs to me that with all the changes going on, that we can plan for it to some extent, but as I’ve also expressed, the universe has a lot of surprise events and ending in store too. Briefly stated, be flexible, be as self-sustaining as possible, and anticipate the worst.

A lot of chatter on the internet lately about what is to become of the internet. As has been shown in other countries lately, the internet has become a tool for rebellion. This is of course untenable to the PTB and something is going to change in that regard. Whether it will be an abrupt change or gradual is open to question of course, but I rather suspect that if open rebellion starts showing up in this country, it will be abrupt. Can’t have those pesky uppity commoners and serfs organizing themselves to challenge the status quo.

Going to have to keep this short today. Wanted to wait for the road trip by the Wizard to be completed and got to get on the clean up work for the chicken coop tour for this weekend.



Wizard's deer. Thanks for sharing, Hot Springs

Let's Get Real About Going Green

Homemade California rolls - still eating with Fukushima in mind.

from murph



On Saturdays post (June 26) from the Charles H. Smith blog (Oftwominds), has a guest post by Kevin Mercadante, who Charles referred to as a fellow blogger. The post is very interesting to me as it summarizes most of the arguments for renewable energy production, particularly wind and solar. He didn’t present anything I would consider new information on the subject, but he did put it all together into a comprehensive argument. However, he did leave out some of what I would consider very important details.

At the same time, the latest posting by the Archdruid from June 22nd also talks more on this subject. Greer has been hitting on this subject for quite awhile now. This particular posting is a rather scathing rebuttal to the renewable energy advocates.

I am going to summarize some of the problems with Kevin’s advocacy.

I am assuming that Kevin is speaking from the position of keeping society running pretty much the way it has been for the last 100 years; Continuous growth, plentiful and cheap energy availability and the life styles that enables. He never addresses the availability of raw material to make this happen and does not address the “gorilla in the room” of total energy in vs total energy out (TEITEO), also called EROI (energy return on investment) involved in any system where one form of energy is converted into another form.

Most of the studies I have seen compare alternate energy systems to oil and its conversion to another form of energy. At this point in time, the studies indicate that the extraction ratio for oil varies anywhere from maybe 1.5 to 1 ratio to 40 to 1 ratio, from a low of tar sands to easily available sweet crude. (That ratio is a reflection of how much oil it takes to pump oil to the wellhead from a reservoir.) As the availability of the easily available sweet crude diminishes, the over all ratios also decrease. As the technology now stands, it appears that the conversion ratios for wind and solar vary from about -3to 1 up to +3 to 1 ratios for TEITEO, (how much energy it takes to generate the output). It would seem rather obvious to me that some huge technological breakthrough would have to occur to do this conversion from oil and also keep our present standard of living. Even if the ratio for alternative electrical production went up 10 to 1 we would still have a decrease in the standard of living. In other words, at our present state of technology, it is a pipe dream to expect no decrease in standard of living arrangements if oil production declines or becomes prohibitively expensive. We simply do not have any technology at the present to make up that difference. We also must keep in mind that generation of electricity is not a cure-all anyway. An example is plastics, no other way to make them other than with petroleum products.

Now lets examine what happens if we have some kind of wild ass technological breakthrough that does makeup the difference. Right off the top, we got a scalability problem. Individual home units have to be either cheap enough to make it available to nearly every household in the world and work flawlessly, or, it has to be able to be up-scalable to the extent to run the majority of the electrical grids in the world. The other problem concerning the grid is that a whole bunch of new infrastructure would have to be put up; alternative wind and solar generation is not going to be located where the infrastructure is currently located. It’s a big investment problems: not insurmountable, but a problem.

Looking at increasing wind energy, take a look at this study linked from Archdruid. Remember I talked about this a couple of years ago.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21028063.300-wind-and-wave-farms-could-affect-earths-energy-balance.html?full=true&print=true

Solar conversion to electricity has another set of problems, not only with efficiency but also the availability of raw material to make it happen.

This is my often-repeated conclusion’s.

Sustainable growth is an oxymoron on a planet with finite resources.

Unless we want to try and negate some of our “laws of physics”, conversion of one form of energy to another always incurs losses and involves consequences we neither understand nor can we adequately predict.

Oil supplies are not infinite, despite the abiotic advocates, With the worlds present and ever increasing use of oil, the replenishment rate of availability simply isn’t there to either claim sustainability or infinite supply.

There is simply no currently known energy source to replace it on a worldwide basis. Therefore standards of living WILL go down, if not tomorrow, then sometime in the near future. If the effort was going to be made to substitute for oil, it should have been started 50 years ago, and that is assuming there is a solution.

Since our society and most of western culture runs mostly on oil and the oil companies are the primary controllers of the political systems in western society, there is no incentive to make a change.

Going to individual systems to provide electrical power is not going to work for most people in this world. The problem of cost and availability of the materials and the gearing up of the manufacturing infrastructure to supply a system of this nature are insurmountable within any kind of time frame to ameliorate a reduction in amount or high price of oil, it appears to me. Plus, I rather suspect that such an effort is politically a non-starter at this time. Yes, individuals can either put up the large amount of capital to produce their own electricity or cobble up and experiment at low cost for themselves and as a consequence, decrease their use of this energy drastically.

Neither wind nor sun produced energy is flexible enough to be used everywhere. The cities, where the majority of people in this world reside, are not going to become giant wind and/or solar farms.

Whatever amount of reserves of energy in the form of oil and gas that exists within the boarders of the US, its extraction cost is going up, its environmental damage will increase, and it will be put on the international market to be sold to the highest bidder.

Even if we developed some kind of substitute for oil and what it represents in living standards, that only means a further increase in world population and a subsequent increase in demand for energy consumption, which implies exponential growth which is impossible to maintain. World population increase that we have seen in the last 100 years was only possible with the use of oil. Take that away, or limit it severely and population has to go down, not up, until we reach some kind of environmental equilibrium. Since it appears to me that “green” energy supplies cannot possibly fill the gap of oil decreasing in availability, something has to give. Sadly, this seems to be ignored by the advocates of supposedly sustainable energy production.

All of these conclusions are based on the assumption that oil will not be readily available at its now relatively low cost and that “green” energy is not cost/benefit doable. We will only know this after the fact, which will then be too late to take effective counter action.

As a side note, Freeacre and I have been introduced to the idea that the tilt of the earth on its axis has increased enough that the sun no longer rises in the east south east and sets in the west south west in the northern hemisphere. Now it is slightly north in both cases. This will, of course, affect the intensity of different types of energy entering earths atmosphere. This certainly has the ability to affect weather patterns and intensity. No wonder our garden isn’t doing near as well this year and could explain the weather anomalies that are so obvious.

Hmmm, does this mean I need to relocate the greenhouse?

Off to the "Real World"

This is who murph is going to be talking to next week. It's Henny Penney, his other girl....

by freeacre

Next week is going to be interesting for me because I will be out of town…and away from my computer for a week. I will be in Corvalis, OR, attending the State Grange Conference, where we have submitted a proposal to stop the sale of Millstone herbicide for hay that becomes toxic to gardens when the manure of horses who eat the hay is used as fertilizer. I am looking forward to attending the conference because I believe that the National Grange organization is potentially a very good resource for those who are attempting to empower the localization of food production and sustainable agriculture. I want to meet the other activist Grangers in Oregon and see if my hope for the organization is viable or not.

At this point they have activities scheduled like “Dress in green and yellow to show your support for the Ducks” and in “orange and black to show support for the Beavers”. I had to look up the Ducks and Beavers on Google just to figure out what the hell they were talking about, since I am not a fan of collegiate football. Guess I’ll go with the orange and black since the college in Corvalis is the Agricultural School. Go Beavers. Anyway, beavers are good.

On another day we are supposed to wear Red, White, and Blue to show our patriotism or something. Personally, I think all these so-called patriotic displays are just delusional activities that obscure the sad fact of the demise of liberty in the nation, the truth that the country is being sabotaged from within by the globalist central bankers and corporations, and to justify imperialism. This is corn-ball, to say the least. I guess I have to be grateful that they didn’t declare a “Lawrence Welk Evening of Music with Champaign Bubbles.” Like I said, this organization is ripe for the next generation to take over.

I think I will suggest that next year we have a “Dress Like a Pirate” day. Aaaaaaarrgh, Matey!!! I already have my costume.

At any rate, this will be a challenge for me because it will be a major disruption in my routine. Unless I frequent cyber cafes in Corvalis, I will not begin my day with George Ure’s latest projections of bear markets and web bot predictions of chaos and “people behaving badly.” I will no longer be kept in touch with the differing radiation levels in the country by Deutchsince, or the approach of Nibiru or Elenin. I won’t know if the planet is aligning with the sun and assorted planets and the approaching comet to instigate earthquakes and volcanoes. I won’t be warned about possible tsunamis or death rays from the Sun. I won’t be given conflicting information about whether the weather is warming or getting colder, whether Obama is a Kenyan or an American, if we are headed for inflation or deflation, if cell phones are giving people brain tumors, if cures for cancer are being suppressed, or even if I am one of those who have been “left behind.” I won’t be e-mailed by one Christian friend after another who sends me prayers and blessings in the name of Jesus, or informed for the 40^th time this year that’s it’s International Girlfriend’s Day. In short, it’s just going to be me and the “real world” for a whole week.

Now, that’s really scary.

And, I ‘m going to be by myself in a motel room with a TV that is hooked up to cable. The last time this happened, there was some sort of Jesse Ventura Conspiracy Theory marathon going on, so it wasn’t too bad. And, I caught up on several missed episodes of The Iron Chef.

The good thing is that Corvalis is a really cool college town that is a center for learning about sustainable farming and permaculture. If I have time I plan to explore the campus and pick up literature. I was happy to read in our comments recently this from gamedog:

”I have weaned myself off the daily doomster research, I felt I was stagnating, I can still keep up with the headlines, but no need to research in depth these days. I now spend more time researching solutions, implementing permaculture design within our community, and generally quietly getting on with it.”

I do think that permaculture and homegrown health and traditional skills are the hope of the world. I find myself changing in my orientation to our alternative living situation. We have chosen a more or less post-collapse lifestyle. Like Gamedog, we were greatly influenced back in 2003 by Michael Ruppert and his From the Wilderness website. Back then, it was all about preparing for what we thought was the immanent arrival of Peak Oil and the Real Estate collapse. Then is sorta morphed into Peak Everything, the global takeover by the banksters and mutant agriculture and Big Pharma. All still true, but impossible to convince anybody of.

So now, if asked, we just live the way we do because we like to. We like to eat healthy food that we grow ourselves. We like to not be in debt to the banks. We like to not sit through a zillion commercials on the tube. We enjoy our chickens and rabbits and garden. We feel more free when we cultivate a sense of “enough” and don’t feel compelled to buy the latest thing or watch the popular programs. And, we find that the less we speak of our rational behind the activity, the more popular it has become. See our website: www.LaPineCoopandGarden.com.

I don’t know if we are on the vanguard of a religion or a revolution or just two old eccentric goofballs, but whichever it is, I feel happier about it all. I feel more secure knowing that our mother, The Earth, can put the kibosh on human foolishness at any time; that the frightening march of tyranny has within it, seeds of failure; that Time will take out even Dick Chaney and those miscreants of his ilk; that life on Earth has prevailed despite encounters with other celestial bodies, hideous war-mongering despots, famines, plagues, pole shifts, ice ages, and calamities of all sorts. I am still appalled by the prevailing idiocracy in America. But, then, I am encouraged that not everybody is brain dead – witness anonymous. Let’s just hope we don’t form a circular firing squad.

Anyway, my dear troutclan, I will be leaving Sunday and hoping to visit the Campfire once or twice through some cyber café or something. Keep an eye on the murphinater for me. He’s going to have a lot to do while holding down the fort around here.